As Stuart Haley grew older, year by year, he worried more and more about the security of his famous cattle fortune. He had raised his daughters in the lap of luxury--they wanted for nothing--and all three girls had matured into lovely young women. But as he aged, Stuart craved the security that only a proper heir could provide. The two older daughters had fallen in love and left him--Stuart's only chance was that his youngest daughter, Charmaine, marry a local man and carry on in the family tradition. But that was not going to be easy. Independent and brash, Charmaine Haley had a life of her own, far away in Boston. It would be up to her father to make her return to a Kansas so incredible that life in the north would pale in comparison. A masked ball, on par with the greatest of fairy tales, would be the event of a lifetime. But to succumb to passion from behind a mask could be a cruel twist of fate--leading Charmaine back through the torment of old mistakes she thought she had left behind forever. Could the specter of true love be only old pain in disguise?